While it might be hasty to suggest we have collectively moved beyond the legacy of panic and neglect behavior, I am hopeful that the multiple global and country level efforts to strengthen pandemic readiness emerging since the deadly West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014 might be starting to bear fruit.

This week at the Third International Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, we’ve seen the birth of a new era in global health financing.

The World Bank Group, together with our partners in the United Nations, Canada, Norway, and the United States, just launched the Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child. It’s hard to believe it’s been less than 10 months since the GFF was first announced at the 2014 UN General Assembly by World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway. We’re grateful to the hundreds of representatives from developing countries, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral development partners, civil society and the private sector who have contributed their time, ideas, and expertise to inform and shape the design of the GFF to get it ready to become operational.

This week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the Third International Financing for Development Conference, the United Nations, along with the World Bank Group, and the governments of Canada, Norway and the United States, joined country and global health leaders to launch the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child. Partners announced that $12 billion in domestic and international, private and public funding had already been aligned to country-led five-year investment plans for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health in the four GFF front-runner countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

A couple months ago while stationed in Ghana, I was approached by colleagues and friends with questions on how to prevent contagion from the deadly Ebola virus. Their concern was stoked by reports in media outlets about the rising number of confirmed cases and deaths in neighboring countries.